


Crutch

by pollitt



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-10
Updated: 2010-11-10
Packaged: 2017-10-13 04:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/132717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollitt/pseuds/pollitt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Balance can come from the most unexpected sources</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crutch

The limp doesn't completely go away--the sound of a car backfiring, the press of the crowd in the tube station, a particularly nasty case (becoming a potential IED being an optional stressor)--all could trigger an ache that goes deeper than muscle and bone and could make even the smallest step a painful one.

Before, John's hands would reach for the cool metal and hard rubber of his cane. He didn't need his former psychologist (he may not always agree with Mycroft, nor does he exactly understand yet what the elder Holmes's motives are, but the advice to fire his psychologist was a good one. And he did so right after waking up from a night without nightmares for first time since returning from Afghanistan, and after he'd found his phone on Sherlock's side of the bed.) to tell him in a patently calm, caring voice that it wasn't just a physical crutch that he was reaching for.

Now, the simple, ordinary cane has been replaced by an ornate silver, ivory and wooden one--the kind gifted to soldiers of an Afghan war a century before--which itself spends more time leaned against the wall beside the fireplace than in use in John's hand.

Thankfully, John has also found that he can reach for something else--someone else--for flesh and blood and wiry, deceptively strong muscles that provide an anchor when he needs one and a shoulder to lean on.

And if John's very lucky, those same hands that have helped him back onto his feet, that keep him standing (and very often running), find those places--both real and imagined--and soothe those aches away.


End file.
